The Grouchy Dwarf

I have a pouty dog this morning.  You see, I won't let her wake up the kids to play.  It's 6:30am.  I don't want the grandkids up yet--truth be told, I don't want Chloe up yet. I don't want to be up yet! But, up we are.

By 7:00, T is up...the grouchy one. And always the first kid to get up at the lake. I make him lay down for awhile longer, but soon, he comes out asking for breakfast.  And thus begins the morning conversations that I love.

One of T's favorite things to do is look at all the pictures sitting out of last summer. Lately, he has noticed that he looks grouchy in all the pictures we have of him at the lake. It's not that I don't try to get pictures of him smiling, but last summer, he hated having his picture taken, so he is definitely in a snit in most of them. 

For example. here is one taken at his uncle's wedding. T points this one out a lot. I don't even remember what was making him grouchy, but I couldn't resist taking the picture.  You can tell just from his arms that he is one mad kid.  Even now, he is sitting on my lap and pointing to the picture and saying, "There's me pouty. I always did that when I was little."

Then, there is this one from the family reunion. He isn't really grouchy in this one, but he does have a weird expression on his face.  Maybe the sun, maybe he's trying to smile and just can't get it out.

Tony does smile a lot now. But last summer, he made those fake smiles that kids make when someone says, "Smile."  I took lots of crazy pictures with that forced smile. I think it's why I started taking the grouchy ones...at least the facial expression was real!

Then, of course, there are the ones of him purposely making grouchy faces. WIth those, there is always the hint of a smile ready to emerge.

So, this morning we are talking about pictures. "Hey, there's lots of pictures of me now. There's me grouchy, there's me smiling, grouchy, grouchy."

"Gramma, where's a picture of me and grandpa and daddy?"

"Well, I don't have one of those. Should I take one?"

"Yep."

"How about today, I take one of you and grandpa golfing. Would that be good?"

"Yep. And no grouchies on the golf course. Right?"

"Right, T. No grouchies..."